Volunteers, By end-of-day today you will see changes in the manual reflecting a few of the navigation issues you identified last week: Changes in where navigation bar links take you Removal of the divider (vertical pipe) in the nav bar New summary sections on the main page A custom search feature We inserted this extra trial and comment phase because of the many valuable insights you supplied.Take note that these are trial solutions. The redesign is not complete and there will be no .rtf, .pdf, .brf, and DAISY versions created until this testing phase is complete. i will alert you today when the changes go live. Some will recall that I surveyed you in April on your initial experience as a Bookshare volunteer. What you told us then informed the improvements to the online manual that you reviewed all last week. After the April survey I promised you a report once Pavi returned and had a chance to study your responses. This week she and I began Bookshare's process of systematic strategic planning around volunteers in which we are studying such data. Below, in partial fulfillment of my promise, are the responses of those who answered question 6: "What was the most valuable part of your training? (If you are able be specific and give us the name of the training document, name of the person who helped you, or details on just how the training you received met your information needs and learning style.)" The story is clear, no matter what we do to improve the manual there is no substitute for the high quality day-to-day mentoring and problem-solving you provide each other on this list. Scott Rains Benetech Fellow, Bookshare Volunteer Department ________________________________________ 1 I learned most from other volunteers and from the volunteer document that explains how to validate and scan books. 2 Bookshare volunteer email list 3 The volunteer discussion list 4 The bookshare discussion list is where I learned how to handle problems. 5 Louise Gourdoux 6 I first began by proofreading, and my fellow volunteers and BookShare employees were extremely helpful. There was no online training or volunteer manual at the time. 7 The bookshare volunteer list. 8 Mayrie Renee and Marilyn Beasly helped a lot specifically and being on the volunteer list in general helped to pick up pointers. 9 I received help from the others volunteers online. 10 Carrie helped me a lot, the e-mail list helped me a lot. 11 Since I had no formal training, I would have to say being able to ask questions on the volunteer list. I had done semi-pro editing before, just not for Bookshare. 12 The manuals did not help me but an individual with simple step by step instructions over the phone did Mayrie things on line to complicated for me. 13 Both the vollunteer manual and the bookshare vollunteer listserv helped me with my training. They both worked with my learning style. I felt comfortable knowing that I could ask other vollunteers, and bookshare staff. 14 The most valuable part of my training was the tips and tricks that I learned from other more experienced, or differently able volunteers on the volunteer e-mail list. Very often in my early volunteering days, we as volunteers were troubleshooting ways to 15 My only training came from reading the manual on bookshare. I'm glad to see that it has been changed to give specifics about proofing. Those instructions (which I didn't have when I started) will be of great value in my future proofreading efforts. 16 Questions answered by Mayrie, especially, on the volunteer list, as well as other volunteers, and Carrie (staff member) 17 Carrie took time to patiently answer all questions and give examples 18 I learned by doing proofing, still not that good. 19 I was trained by asking questions of Monica Wilyard, Mayrie Rene, and others. 20 I asked questions and learned from responses on the bksvol list. 21 just getting in there and doing it. Also, reading things on the discussion list. 22 In general, I simply asked questions on the Bookshare lists, and incorporated responses into my validating style. I also read through the FAQ document to make sure I was doing it right. 23 I had a friend who volunteers for Bookshare who emailed her procedure for formatting a book before starting to proofread a book. I was given advice on saving my work, etc. Kudos to her for her meticulous explanations for procedures which she demonstrated 24 Use of the Bookshare scanning and proofreading manual. 25 The most valuable is the volunteer listserve. The volunteer manual is good, but there is only so much a manual can cover. Specific situations are best handled by asking other experienced volunteers. One area that the volunteer manual could be improved is 26 I am still learning. I help Robert Tweedy with scanning and spelling on his part, not my. 27 Read the Validation Handbook. I have a file on my PC I downloaded from Bookshare that I named Proofreading Tips, but I'm not sure that's what it's called on the website. It's someone's cheat sheet on tricks for cleaning up books. I've been scanning fo 28 The manual and especially the Volunteer list. On the list, I was able to ask questions when I needed information right then and get the answer. 29 Gerald Hovis gave me lessons and helped me to proofread a novel by Tess Geritson he scanned. He taught me how to insert accents, italics, and other symbols. He taught me to search for junk characters, to move page numbers to the tops of pages, to make an 30 My friend Molly O'Sullivan is very helpful with my volunteering. Since I am sighted and she is visually impaired, she is able to let me know how the books read from the perspective of someone who can't see the words. 31 the volunteer listserve. 32 I would say the document I refer to most often in volunteer work is the section written by Mayrie concerning expediting the proofing process in MS Word. It's in the volunteer manual and I use it for every book I do to ensure thoroughness, on top of readin 33 Reading the guidelines before I started. They were much shorter then. 34 help by other volunteers through examples and techniques discussed on the list. 35 The manual has been the most valuable to me and I hope it continues to be updated as standards evolve. 36 Gerald Hovas, Jake Brownell, and Mayrie ReNae. Pay them to do your training because they understand scanning and proofreading. The guys in Bookshare's tech support don't scan books and can't answer questions. When Gerald moderated the volunteers list, he 37 I think that the most valuable part of my traning was the BookShare proofreaders manual, especially the section on proofreading with Microsoft Word. It explained everything explicitly, and did not assume that I would just know how to do certain things, as 38 When I first volunteered there really wasn't much in the way of training other than a few documents that were sent to me via email from Jesse, the coordinator at the time. They were helpful, but the current manual available is much more so and I have read 39 Monica was instrumental in all my training with scanning and proofreading. 40 I asked a lot of questions via the BKSVolunteer discussion list. Also Monica Wilyard and Amber Wallenstein helped me greatly. 41 people on the volunteer list were very helpful, they answered my questions completely, but wading through copious amounts of email to find the answers was a challenge at times. also the bookshare manual was helpful for learning the basics To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.